Title: The Doctor’s Theory on Dreaming
Rating: G
Characters: Rose, Ten
Spoilers: None really, unless you weren’t aware that Rose Tyler traveled with the Doctor. And that she was brilliant.
Summery: The Doctor has a question, who does he go to? Rose Tyler.
Authors Note: Inspired by the Time and Chips September Prompt table #14.
When you dream,
what do you dream about?
Do you dream about
music or mathematics
or planets too far for the eye?
Do you dream about
Jesus or quantum mechanics
or angels who sing lullabies?
---- When You Dream by Barenaked Ladies
“Rose, what do you dream about?” asked the Doctor as he popped his head in to her bedroom.
Rose currently curled up beneath her quilt, debated about whether she really wanted to answer that question. While she loved talking with the Doctor, she was pretty sure she had been awake for the last 25 hours. Though she wasn’t entirely sure, her watch hadn’t worked ever since the Doctor had borrowed it for an hour or two at least a couple of months ago.
She groaned, and he took that as an invitation. Before she was able to turn around and face him, he was already on the bed beside her his head popped up with one hand as he laid on his side.
“Dreams are very important to humans. Did you know you spend about 6 years of your lifetime dreaming?” said the Doctor, “That’s brilliant. I knew I liked you humans for a reason, though what a time waster.”
Rose blinked at him, “I dream about getting a good night sleep.”
“But it’s the middle of the day!” said the Doctor, “And isn’t that technically a wish because it’s not like you dream about sleeping when you are already asleep. It would be a bit boring and really entirely unnecessary. And frankly I never figured you for being so unimaginative.”
“How do you know that?” asked Rose sleepily.
“Know what? I know lots of things. Do you know when you look up dreams in google you get over 274,000,000 hits. That’s amazing. You lot are all so fascinated about what different dreams mean. You still haven’t figured out exactly why you dream. You even study it.
Oneirology. It must be the only job where you could argue that sleeping at work is business related.”
“No. How do you know it’s the middle of the day? There are no clocks here, no windows.”
The Doctor frowned, “Who needs clocks when you got me, and there is no need for windows in the TARDIS. Why do you want to spend your life looking out windows? When you can be out there and explore.”
“And run,” added Rose.
“Weeeell, yeah, we do tend to spend a lot of our time running don’t we?”
“Mmm,” murmured Rose.
“So what do you dream about Rose?” asked the Doctor. “Do you dream about what other planets are out there that we haven’t visited yet? Do I ever feature in one of your dreams?”
Suddenly Rose was wide awake, as she sat up abruptly. “What?”
“Well people you know can often be incorporated in to dreams. I figured I might have starred in a dream or two. After all I have shown you the universe!”
Rose relaxed and laid back down, “Well you haven’t shown me all of it yet.”
“Is that the requirement for you to dream about me?” asked the Doctor as he moved his head down so they were face to face, with barely an inch between them.
Or for me to admit it, thought Rose, “Maybe.”
“So why do human dream?’ asked Rose, “You have your superior time lord knowledge, why do humans spend up to 6 years of their life dreaming?”
The Doctor grinned, “No idea. It’s one of the great mysteries of life that makes living fascinating. Do you want to know my personal theory?”
Rose nodded.
“You dream…,” said that Doctor as he grinned at her, as her eyes once more started to close. “Because you are brilliant.”
He moved quietly off the bed, straightened the quilt around her and kissed her softly on the forehead.
“Sleep well, Rose Tyler,”
- On a interesting side note I've found another site (not wikipedia this time) that states that "Researchers estimate that we may spend a quarter of our sleep time dreaming (7 and 1/2 years of a typical lifetime." Though I haven't found the extact research article yet. Here's a link to that site
here if you're interested.